I had an 1985 with a 2.2L EFI engine. I bought it in 1990 and it only had 25,000 miles on it. I found it in the back row of a local used car dealership and it had a broken window because someone had stolen the stereo and a bad thermostat so I got it for $2,000. Found replacement glass for the window and a replacement stereo at a local junkyard changed the thermostat and drove it for a hundred thousand miles. It was black with bronze wheels. Loved the sunroof and I often drove it at night or through the Fall Foliage in New England with the top rolled back and the heater on full blast. It was very reliable and I only remember it not starting twice once when the fuel pump went out and once when a replacement battery was faulty.
@@B1970TBronze I have good memories of it but do I miss it not really. I have driven and owned over 40 cars since then in each one of them had their attributes but life is too short to drive the same car forever.
2k was all the money back then. Most used Renaults were priced in the hundreds. I bought a mint LeCar for $300 back in 96 and I bought a five year old GTI in 91 for $1,600
Those things are legendary on south america. In the 1988 Argentinian TC2000 Juan Maria Traverso crossed the finish line with his Fuego completely on fire and won 😹
Memory overload! I had a 1983 1.6 non turbo Fuego (red with a grey interior) that got me through college and early married life ( my then girl friend, still wife actually helped me push start it once. That's partly how I knew she was the one!). Some of the details remembered... 1. That little gauge in the center bottom of the main cluster with the oil can logo is for the oil level, not the pressure. It activates with the ignition on, engine off. 2. Both turn signal indicators blink no matter what direction you are indicating. The bulb is just there to show you it's working. 3. The shifter knob was originally covered with thin leather that wore out about 5 minutes after it was installed. I replaced mine the second time with a plain wooden knob as I knew the pattern by then! 4. That stupid catalytic converter was located too close to the alternator and if the heat shield was missing then the alternators had a rather diminished life (5 alternators in 7 years). 5. The valve clearances need to be checked and adjusted periodically for happy running. 6. The French know how to make a small car ride like a dream! Great seats and coil springs all around along with regular 13 inch steel wheels with fairly tall sidewall tires let that little car float along almost as comfortably as my 64 Cadillac. 7. As I recall mine had a 15(!) gallon gas tank that meant I only had to fill up about once a month as it averaged 21 mpg around town! (saw 36 or so on the highway when I was brave enough to go out of town!) 8. I could still get parts from Don Dawson AMC/Eagle in Pensacola but they were never very happy to see me! They'd have to look up parts on a microfiche and then cross reference the numbers with a different parts book, then order the part usually. I also later had access to a parts car and stripped anything I thought would be useful for later repairs so that helped. 9. I never drove on a long trip without bringing a toolbox and some spare parts. 10. Those spark plugs have an extension stem that screws onto the top of the plug to make the connection to the spark plug leads. Much joy for tune ups. 11. I had a squeak from the rear of the car when loaded for 6 of the 7 years I owned it that turned out to be the rear brake proportioning valve connection rod rubbing on a guide. 12. The center pad on the steering wheel isn't the horn. That's activated by pushing in on the turn signal stalk which is also rotated to turn on the exterior lights and clicked toward the steering wheel to control the high/low beams. It was a rather expensive switch to replace as a result! 13. The great fun it was to watch someone unfamiliar with the car walk up to the passenger side and then stare at the door panel to try and locate the door handle! As I said so many (repressed?) memories. Well, as Click and Clack used to say, "Nobody copies the French and the French don't copy anybody!" Looking forward to this repair with great interest. Thank you.
@@MrSparklespring The NPR car guys once said every car maker copies all the other car makers, but the French don't copy anyone and no one copies the French. They recommeded getting a mechanic named Pierre.
A friend's dad had one back in the day in Ireland. It looked pretty futuristic when it was new compared to the rubbish, boxy stuff that everyone was driving in Europe at the time.
I grew up in Dublin as a teenager in the 80s. Two neighbours in my estate worked in sales for Renault main dealers. They both picked a different car every week for personal use so I got to see the whole range of exotic Renault including this Feugo, but also the turbo editions of the R11, R18, R25…all really cool cars for their time.
It has a DeLorean vibe with this colour. It was definitely a sporty car for young drivers in the 80s, you could see many of them with a huge CB antenna to communicate with drivers in the area and know where the police is.
Around the point where car lights were designed by the stylist rather than coming out of a light manufacturers catalogue and being bolted on. The European Feugos had streamlined headlights matching the body shape.
@@w.e.s.hey dude you sound like the worst kind of person. Like you hate that people post fun facts relating to the content they're commenting under? I hate people that think they are the coolest person they know. Like there is so much shit in this world that actually sucks but you pick on this freaking dude?
@@lucasrem My Cajun Queen has people in France & her cousins have some killer Renault`s over there that planted me in the seat... they were telling me to sneak some thru Canada with some beefed up American windows/bumpers to pass the inspections... that`s the issue
Not sure why people don't like Mrs wizards interior reviews...she is very thorough and and knows colors names I have forgotten about..never a skip for me
I saw the original Facebook Marketplace listing for this car and ended up messaging a ton of RUclips channels about it because I had watched it sit for weeks - I couldn't take on the project myself, but I wanted to get it in one of their hands; AMAZING TO SEE IT MADE IT!
The Renault Fuego is a legend in Argentina, there were specific models and even Diego Maradonna had a Fuego. Edit : It's crazy to see a US model with a 85 mph max speedometer. The European version was able to go 120+ mph. Like other Renault Turbo cars of the era (5, 9, 11, 18, 25) the gear knob was covered in leather, so the orange plastic was the original color but it didn't matter since it was covered.
I've seen a red Renault Fuego in the UK, within the past year or so. I did a double-take as I drove past as they're practically extinct here, and it seemed so random, parked outside a house in the middle of nowhere. I've always really liked the look of them.
I had a 'W' reg red Renault Fuego 1.6TS when I was aged 19/20. Lovely car and was referred to as a poor man's porsche by some at the time. Great times.
You're probably going to have to get the fuel pump, filter, sending unit, etc. from Argentina. I bought a non running Renault Fuego as a project car for $500 back in 2002. I simply couldn't find parts for it in the U.S.
All Argentinian made Fuegos were equipped with 2.0L motor at first then 2.2L both carburetted, no injection here unfortunately, as for the US turbo it is equpped with 1.6 which is completely different,
I still have nightmares about that sunroof. I did my apprenticeship at a Renault dealer in the early 80's. The gear mechanism is half plastic and half metal and very fragile and prone to breaking due to the design. Getting a broken roof open without destroying it was not easy. Thieves used to break in through the sunroof in order to steal the factory Blaupunkt stereo, so unfortunately I had lot's of practice .. and just pray you never have to deal with the half dozen relays used to control the heater/AC fans.. Renault makes Lucus look like they knew what they were doing when it comes to wiring :)
@@peteoutwest6839 The North American models had the A/C as a stand alone evaporator in the center console with its own blower motor. It used the same fan switch as the heater and had a pile of relays to switch back and forth between the 2 motors. Nothing was labelled and the relays were mounted randomly in a group up under the dash...
@@timmccabe8555 so just as I said, wanted to be fancy because in Europe you didn't even get AC IIRC so they, in good old French tradition tinkered with electronics that they don't understand. Even the Germans had regular sliders and one button for AC.
I took mine on the PA Turnpike at over 100mph and no rattles and no shakes. That was my first car that I financed. Total price, $8,888.00 That was in '85.... Man, you put Genesis in the tape deck and you pull that sunroof back, you were saying something.
Those sunroofs are very common in Europe and the most common brand, is Webasto. These could be bought and retro-fitted in many cars. The older ones were all manually operated, as far as I’ve seen in the past, so it’s cool to see this one being electric, as far back as 82! The Fuego is a very cool and very rare car! I’m actually surprised you got these in the US!! Every day is a school day 😁
Yup the memories! :) Renault had a good presence here in the 1980's and you'd have seen a lot of them here especially the "Le Car" (the US name for the Renault 5) and my memory's fuzzy on this but the US Postal Service bought the Renault Alliance, in right hand drive I would think, for testing for US mail delivery! Back when I was looking for my first car the Fuego was on my short list along with other cars of the time e.g. Isuzu Impulse and ultimately I bought an '86 Toyota Corolla SR5 which I later traded in for just $500--geez if I'd had only known how popular those last of the RWD Corollas would later become! Seems like most the Fuegos I saw were the same silver color as the one in this video, doing a quick search on youtube I found this old commercial for the '82 (sold here by AMC dealerships another thing I'd forgotten), enjoy! :) ruclips.net/video/LoR_PQ9MCoM/видео.html
Yeah, Americans and the Canadians got it, but they totally ruined the styling with the really stupid "impact absorbing" bumpers which were required by law, and by the totally silly US spec headlamps which were really no better than two tiny little candles. The Cibie lamps, on the other hand were fabulous and would light up the night sky like the Sun.
Renault owned AMC at the time, which is why they had a decent presence. There’s actually a Renault Fuego shot in a Wonder Woman episode from the original series, where Diana Prince (played by Lynda Carter) is driving it.
@ ah very cool! I didn’t know about the AMC link, so that makes sense! It shows that even after almost 45 years of studying cars, there’s always more to learn!
I've never seen an electrically operated sunroof like that, though I'm well acquainted with the manual Webasto version. They're actually very weatherproof and surprisingly robust if properly maintained. Some were vinyl and others double-duck, but they're not horribly expensive to get retrimmed if necessary.
I'm impressed your angry guy called to apologize, these days not many people have that level of integrity. Of course better if he's just said he wanted to get a second opinion, and not get angry in the first place.
My first car was an 84 Fuego. Drove it around from 2000 to 2005. Had the 2.0 litre carby engine but I did a top end swap with a Renault 21 that had the same engine but with EFI. Definitely ran a bit smoother after that. Loved that car, miss that car.
"Had the 2.0 litre carby engine" - Nice, but carburetors REALLY can get messed up with Bad-Old fuel. BTW: Sta-Bil doesn't work even for fuel just sitting for 6 months - The RUclips channel 'Project Farm' tested the 'stuff' - Non-Ethanol fuel came out on top BY ALOT !
There's a reason why the folks from Roadkill, Junkyard Digs, or Vice Grip Garage frequently have to rig up a fuel system or sw.ap carburetors to get their ancient heaps running. Restoring these ancient fuel-injection setups is another nightmare entirely. One could likely hack up an aftermarket EFI setup on these, but now it's no longer original. Hats off to Euroasian Bob for trying to keep this Fuego stock and original instead of doing a LS or K-series swap.
Finally...the Fuego!!! Thank you Car Wizzard! Mine was externally the same. It was a non-turbo 1.6 litre hemi with the spark plugs at the center of the combustion chamber. This one has a 1.5 and it's mounted with metric Michelin TRX which are really expensive, hard to find and outdated. Only good memories.
The first new car I bought was a red 1982 Fuego. It had the fabric top, but it wasn’t the turbo. It had a very, smooth ride, but was very slow. The 5 speed was a bit rubbery. I had the fabric roof, but the French design was not so great. If you didn’t release the power top button at the exact second that it was fully closed the mechanism exploded. The poor Jeep/AMC mechanics didn’t have a clue how to repair it. When I started dating my wife, shortly a getting the car, I warned her that her apartment was in a bit of a sketchy neighborhood. Sure enough thieves slashed the roof to get the radio. It went back to those poor mechanics who had to replace the whole thing. Overall I really liked the design and the ride. I liked the car, but didn’t love it. So, when we first got married I had the Fuego and she had a Rabbit, which was a fun car to drive but super unreliable and very spartan. We sold the Rabbit and bought a 1966 Porsche 912, that was in pretty rough shape. I sold the Fuego and bought a 1977 BMW 320i, which was the first year model of the iconic 3 series. It was more fun to drive, but even less reliable and needed sandbags in the trunk and Vredestein winter tires to survive winter. Then we had kids and the fun old cars went bye bye. My Fuego didn’t have the upgraded leather interior like this one, but my interior was a velour fabric with the same seats.
I had a 1985 Fuego back in the 90's, a 2 litre n/a carburetored 5 speed manual. It's was a really good car and handled very well considering the engine sitting out past the front axle. Funny you should mention hail storms because that's how mine got written off, I was caught in the 1999 Sydney hailstorm, which was the costliest natural disaster in Australian insurance history. An estimated 500,000 tonnes of hailstones fell as the storm made its way along the east coast. Every upward facing panel had hail damage, windscreen was smashed and the tailgate glass was shattered. Took it to the smash repairers the next morning and they just took one look and said write-off. Thankfully it had a regular steel roof and not the fabric slide back one this has. Never seen that on a Fuego before, only Citroen 2CVs.
A special note on the tire and wheel combination of this car. They came with a special Michelin tire and wheel. The wheel is about a 15.5 diameter but in metric and it had a special bevel for the bead seat. You can not find this Michelin tire any more. They were known as a TRX. I was a tire dealer back in the 80s and Michelin basically gav e us free wheels to try to get them to sell. Plan on buying wheels and tires for this to get it road worthy.
You can get them where I am in the UK from Michelin Classic but they are eye wateringly expensive as they do small production runs and are normally about £500 each!
I had a 1961 VW bug that had a manual version of that retractable style sunroof. When opened, almost the entire roof was open. It was a vinyl impregnated fabric over a metal frame but had real headliner material as the material you saw from the cabin. It never leaked, even in some pretty hard downpours, something that was not true of the hard top sunroof in a later Type 3 Squareback I had. I hope whoever buys the Fuego fully restores it.
I had a 1984 bought brand new. There were 5 levels. Mine was level 3. 1,6 liter with Turbo, hard top and cloth seats. Replacing tires (Michelin TRX) was very expensive. I remember purchasing a set of 4 around 1988 for 110$ each + taxes + installation... On each side, a huge decal with the word TURBO stretched on the lower side of the door from wheel to wheel. When Mrs. Wizard showed the missing radio, shivers went down my spine. Fuegos had a huge thing going against them. It came from the factory with a Blaupunkt radio with cassette player. Thieves would spot these cars from afar, break the window and steal the radio. It happened to me only once. I had to get a drawer thingy and would leave with the whole unit under the arm whenever I parked it for any length of time. Not the most pleasant thing. It wasn't very fast. But, at low speed, It did have very good acceleration when the turbo kicked in.
Back in the days when "Turbo" was the latest and greatest thing. In the U.K. you could even get sunstrips saying OBRUT so people you were following knew what was behind them.
TRX tyres had a specially shaped bead which would only fit on rims especially made for the tyre. I'm not sure what Michelins thinking behind the TRX tyre was. To ensure that they weren't put onto a regular rim the rims and the bead diameter of the tyre were in millimetres not inches. Given that only the French manufacturers got on board with this that made the tyres more expensive. My Fuego had them and my parents had a Peugeot 505 GTi which also used them. The TRXs aren't made anymore so at some point I'd have had to swap over all 4 wheels to enable fitting normal tyres but my Fuego got written off before I got to that point.
The irony about the French made Michelin TRX tyres on a French Renault was that the Renaults sold in France used regular wheel sizes not TRX. I own now a UK spec Fuego Turbo with factory 185/65HR14 tyres!
@@DPG-Guitar Hi. I'm sure you are mostly right, but there was a least one american manufacturer who used TRXs for a time and in special cases. Way back when, a friend at work had a Mercury Capri Black Magic Edition (1981 or 1982 i'm not sure). It was a very special edition with a 5 liter V8. It came for the factory with 190/65 R 390 TRXs. I assume they did not sold many as it was quite expensive for what it was. I believe there also was a Ford Mustang of that era that had TRXs. It was probably a very select edition.
most of the Fuego parts are from the Renault 18 and they are widely available in Africa and latin America in my country they were used to carry twice their weight in counterband products across the borders they are so reliable
I had a turbo Fuego in 1985. you could get a non turbo Fuego but the silver ones are the turbo equipped ones. Mine had the gray interior with no retractable roof. I still think they are beautiful. I regent having to sell it. I love seeing that car! Takes me back to a good time.
I started out as a tech at an AMC,JEEP, RENAULT dealership we had one towed in. Customer states car wont start after changing the tire. He knocked the coil wire off when he put the flat tire back under the hood.
Wow, I was just saying to my son today how I haven’t seen a Fuego for a long time. I had two of them in the 80’s - both turbocharged but unfortunately met an untimely end - but I loved my Fuegos. Thanks for sharing. The reason that the cat is behind the turbo is because it was added for the North American market, and that was the only place to put it. My second one had a plugged cat which caused it to not produce any turbo boost. Was a simple fix to remove the innards of the cat with a steel rod, and it ran so much better.
Shhh the wiz is far too knowledgeable to listen to us old geezers as passed over the Michelin engineered wheels that our 81 Saab turbo also rocked which was well ahead of the American cars at the time. Now if the wify would only simmer down when she rolled up on a vette or one of those yuppie beemer peeps I wouldn`t have been doing those front calipers every 6,000 damn it.... Wiz didn`t even slide behind the wheel or maybe he couldn`t fit shhhhh
The last time I saw a Fuego, I had long black hair. Fast forward to the present day and I have a bald head, gray chest hair and haven't seen a Fuego in at least 30 years. What a fine specimen!
Thanks for checking. In contrast there are 36 Jaguar E types for sale on Autotrader U.K. Everyone seems to pick the same cars as "Classics" and forget about ones like this which were actually affordable back in the day.
I had one for 7 years - the 1985 2.0 GTX. Took me through college, never broke down, never required any oil top up. That thing was a tank with a tight engine
Drove one for awhile in the day. Loved it, along with a merkur and a Renault 21(nee eagle medallion) and a Peugeot 504 wagon and various Saabs and Volvos. Love the funk!! Velcro May be a mount for an 80’s radar detector. Always loved the designs of these off beat cars, the running not so much! Thanks for the videos really enjoy them!
Clarification, the "gearbox" is actually behind, ie rearwards of where those CV drive axles come out of the transmission housing. Many Renaults, for many years, have used a similar system where the drive comes out the back of the engine, flywheel, clutch, then sneaks past beyond where those half axles come out. Then goes through the gearbox, then the drive is transmitted forward again, up to internal differential and the half axles. It's an ingenious design. I had this car's 5 door big brother, Renault 25 hatchback) with the 2.2 litre naturally aspirated engine and talking dashboard, yes in 1980's a clearly talking dashboard. "Front door, NOT shut" etc.
Talking dashboards were the latest thing back then. The top of the range Austin Maestro had one. "Not the Nine of Clock News" did a comedy sketch about them "mind the gatepost". Nowadays, we are expected to talk to the cars.
The vinyl of that roof is probably quite hard from aging and sun. The headlights are NA specific, the Euro headlights are flush with the body contour. What is surprising is the absence of rust. The ones I knew all converted quite quickly to iron oxide and extra air conditioning lightweight construction.
Careful with the tires. They seem to be Michelin with the TRX system (IIRC). Tires and wheels are not compatible with normal ones (different sizes, different layout...). They were an advancement at the time, but did not prevail.
Austin TX 😢1982 - I wanted the Fuego but bought an Alliance becsuse my wife liked it better. When the salesman put his boots up on his desk and proceeded to tell her that the transmission worked like the runners on her kitchen drawers (little lady), I thought she was going to leap over that desk and rip him a new one, boy howdy.
That looks exactly like the one I bought new. They were a pretty roomy small car. I had the 1.6 liter turbo. It would deliver 39 mpg on the hiway all day and 32 mpg in the city. My dad eventually bought it from me because he liked it so much.
The velcro strip on the dash is most likely a mount for a radar detector, a common practice back in the day. It's also in about the spot most people would mount one.😅
Good luck getting metric TRX tyres for that Fuego. Be a shame to lose those wheels, they are very unique to the Fuego in the US. Cheers wizard, Steve, Sydney, Australia.
This was in that funny era where AMC had teamed up with Renault. You could buy Jeeps at Renault dealerships in France and Renaults at AMC dealerships in USA. This unlikely union produced ONE beautiful child, the Jeep Cherokee XJ.
A timely video for me as I am restoring a 1972 Renault 17 which is the predecessor of the Fuego. It has the same engine, Bosch fuel injection and has been laid up since 1985. I have restored the bodywork and completely rebuilt the brakes. Now I know it will stop, I need to get it to go. Next job is the fuel system and you have given me an excellent tutorial, thank you.
I used to have a full option one in europe. Mine was 1984. No fuel injection over here. But if you want funky, just google on 1984 fuego turbo with radio renault. Way different and much 'funkier' 😊 Had a lot of fun with it, actually had 2!
One of my first jobs was at an AMC Jeep dealership in 1983. We didn't sell many of these back then. The Renault Appliance, I mean Alliance sold fairly well
The shape is the same as the Euro ones, also used in the R11 turbo and the R5 Alpine, but the leather is US market only. Europeans would have never bought that style.
I had the pleasure of driving one of these back in the day. Super comfortable, and surprisingly quick for an 80's 1.6L. Good luck with the Michelin TRX tires. It will need a wheel and tire swap.
I have a roof exactly like that on my 2021 Land Rover Defender, I love it. The Fuego was known as 'the poor mans Porsche' back in the day, there were a lot on UK roads.
Wow thats a time travel moment. Never thought I would see a Fuego again. I had a 2.0 GTX in Metallic blue in 1988. Loved it to bits except the sunroof would not stop leaking.
I am old, so trust me on this one: getting a weird old car is a piece of cake! Easy!! Oh, you wanted a car that worked? Sorry.....not possible...... Would make for interesting decor out behind the barn, ass deep in weeds, surrounded by other assorted scrapmetal...
@@hughbarton5743 I mean I have a 90s Mondeo and even though it jerks a bit sometimes and the AC doesn't work it still runs like a clock and takes me to work every day with over 330.000km on the clock, so....
Well, if I look at channels like Autio Auction Rebuilds, Samcrac and others, modern cars are even less reliable with all the elecronic gimmicks. Or as my mom's mexhanic once said when I was a kid: "What's not there (i.e. installed) can't break." The man was absolutely right.
Useful info on the fuel system. I always had a soft spot for these cars, I liked the ones with the Turbo livery like the one in the A View to a Kill James Bond movie.
fuego 1.6 turbo same engine as the renault 18 turbo should have 110bhp an a big garret t3 turbo a bit of lag when the boost comes in the fun would start!! it deserves to be restored and used .
My brother still drives his Citroen DS from 1970. In the eighties, he had a 1983 Turbo Fuego. That car caught fire and burned to the ground about 35 years ago!
i have not seen a fuego since the early 90's the roof is awesome. really love it. a company called webasto in the uk made them for british cars. renault had other models with this type of webasto sunroof including the 4 and 2CV and many others. fiat used to as well. i love them bc they open so large it almost makes the car a convertible.
Back in the 1980s, when I was 19, I almost bought one of these. Instead, I ended up getting a crashed 944 and repairing it myself, but I still remember this car with a lot of fondness. Watching this video brings back great memories-I really enjoy hearing about your experiences. That kind of insight and personal connection is something money can’t buy! Keep up the good work.
Hi from Toulouse, France. I really enjoy your videos. Love those Fuegos. Good luck with finding millimetric TRX tyres. Back in the day i used to have some on my VW golf GTI. Even in the eighties they were awfully expensive, but the best on the road ! Thumbs up for all your great work !
Many years ago AMC / Renault had a joint venture. One of the areas I was responsible for - to provide manpower (technicians) for the executive garage. The execs could either lease or get a company car as a part of their benefits. The Techs in the Exec garage complained that the Fuego and Medallian took longer to fix and diagnose than our AMC cars. Renault had multiple voltages under the hood running various systems…12,14,8, 10 volts if I recall. They were really “problem children”. Sorting things out soured both the execs and the techs. The good point about Renaults was they ran very smoothly over the roughest roads. So… verify voltages and understand how much voltage is used where. Nice cars - Bur!
I had an 82 Turbo once, no start same issue. Check the fuel pump circuit relay under the passenger front seat area, that’s where my fuel pump problem was. The relay was in a box and had a burned circuit board.
Brings back memories, my 1982 GTX Fuego looked great, performed not so and quietly rusted away in under 5 years. Car Wizard, always loved the videos. 🤠
I worked at a Renault dealership back in the 70s. Man, they were pieces of shit back then. Even the Gordini was awful. I remember the shocks were $150 back then! The shocks were made in the USA by Monroe, shipped to France where they were repackaged then shipped to dealers! Crazy.
That's for other brands too. Buy Volvo-branded electric adjustable shocks and pay a lot more than if you buy the Monroe ones. The only difference is the Volvo sticker on them, as they are also made by Monroe.
I still remember the LeCar my parents had in the 80s. Fortunately it died before I got my license in 85. Really clean Fuego and should be a cool vintage ride when done.
19:56 I thought my neighborhood crows were up late! Nice to see they a noisy everywhere I am. Thank you Wizard and Mrs Wizard for this trip back in time.
I had the same year Renault 18i, basically the same car but the sedan version. Drove that car all over the country, was actually a very comfortable car. Same orangey colored interior but the seats were just the one color orangey leather.
I agree with the wizard on stabilizers. I've used them for winter storage of lawn mowers, weed walkers and the sort but then again that's 6 months vs 30 years. Keep showing me those cool cars from when I was in high school in the mid 80's.
My dad worked for AMC back in the day (owned by Renault at the time) and we were able to lease cars for a year at a time. We had had a Fuego Turbo one year (1982) and my brother and I took it on Spring Break to South Padre Island. The car started to overheat around Brownsville so we stopped at a local repair shop. The mechanics literally thought we were time travelers. They had never seen anything like it!
Did anyone else cross their fingers and grit their teeth when the Wizard opened and closed that roof? I had a LeCar (Leaker as we called it) with the similar roof and three studded wheels.
I worked at a very large used car lot in the mid 80's-mid 90's. I have seen a few of them back in the day along with VW Scirocco's and Renault Alliance and Encore's that I made a lot of money taking the dash out and replacing the heater core's!
You've brought back memories here. I had bought a '84 Fuego Turbo as a $350 project car. I'd road tested one before that, and based on that, very much wanted one. The car I bought lacked the sunroof, power accessories and the leather, but was colored much the same. I wasn't a good enough mechanic to fix all of its problems. I replaced the head gasket, but that was followed by a problem with the engine not developing nearly enough power. I tore through that fuel injection system and could never fix the problem. Most likely I made the problem when I replaced the head gasket, but I didn't have the time to solve it properly. Worse, someone cut the diagnostic plug (it's on the firewall, a small black square). Modding one of these would have been unlikely, to be gentle about it. You weren't going to flip open a Neuspeed or a NOPI catalog and find stuff for this car, as I recall. On the other hand, I had information on buying Renault Sport parts that would have lowered the suspension, perhaps included anti-sway bars, and non TRX wheels were available at the time. Renault actually supported its cars in competition here, there were even series races for them. There was a Le Car Cup and an Alliance Cup at one time, I think. Could they have been looking for their next F1 drivers here? I was a member of a Renault Owner's Club, and someone was selling dealer keychains. So the one I had said Les Automobiles Deauvillaises, Rue De Paris 14800 DEAUVILLE 31.88.21.34. Like I said, memories. Also, the regret that I could not have done more with my Fuego.
Thanks guys to click on "translate" to find out the funky eputation of the Fuego in France 😂 Je suis étonné et heureux de constater que le Wizard a dans son atelier la voiture la plus moquée de France. Combien de films comiques Français ont ridiculisé les possesseurs de Fuego? Et cette réputation de Porsche du pauvre, de coupé pseudo sportif sur base de familiale populaire, n'a pas traversé l'atlantique. J'ai hâte de voir ce superbe exemplaire (sièges pétales cuir) et peinture impeccable reprendre la route. Bravo Wizzard.
A competitor to the old Ford Capri. Another car that is both mocked or admired but never both. The new one will be forgotten in twenty year time. p.s. Now that the new Renault 5 is complete they should start designing a Fuego EV.
Great video . My dad Only had Renaults when we were kids ( UK ) 16's / 18's and then of course the big 25 V6 .I remember begging him to get a 'Fuego" 🤣🤣🤣 this brought back some vey happy memories !!
I had an 1985 with a 2.2L EFI engine.
I bought it in 1990 and it only had 25,000 miles on it.
I found it in the back row of a local used car dealership and it had a broken window because someone had stolen the stereo and a bad thermostat so I got it for $2,000.
Found replacement glass for the window and a replacement stereo at a local junkyard changed the thermostat and drove it for a hundred thousand miles.
It was black with bronze wheels. Loved the sunroof and I often drove it at night or through the Fall Foliage in New England with the top rolled back and the heater on full blast.
It was very reliable and I only remember it not starting twice once when the fuel pump went out and once when a replacement battery was faulty.
FUNKY 😂
Nice story. Do you miss it?
@@B1970TBronze I have good memories of it but do I miss it not really.
I have driven and owned over 40 cars since then in each one of them had their attributes but life is too short to drive the same car forever.
@ True
2k was all the money back then. Most used Renaults were priced in the hundreds. I bought a mint LeCar for $300 back in 96 and I bought a five year old GTI in 91 for $1,600
That Velcro was probably from a RadioShack “Micronta” brand radar detector
radioshack wow that was a fun cool place to go and hang out at!
I was going to say radar detector as well.
@@BrianBlake-t4w I'm holding out for 9-band equalizer. You know the one, with the sliders. Oh yeah that's the stuff.....
@timewa851 I had a RS 10 band attached to my Kmart Audiovox in my 78 Pinto; 6 x 9s in back, 6" in the doors. 😆😆😆😆
@@BrianBlake-t4w I'd guess the old school square shaped Escort radar detector.
Those things are legendary on south america. In the 1988 Argentinian TC2000 Juan Maria Traverso crossed the finish line with his Fuego completely on fire and won 😹
Legendary race!
@@Conquering_your_purposeindeed! He’ll be dearly missed.
Now that s FUNKY
@@CocoaManteka aguante el flaco traverso!
I'm guessing it was the injector hoses. That style was used on some other cars (first gen 300zx) and were well known for leaking.
Memory overload! I had a 1983 1.6 non turbo Fuego (red with a grey interior) that got me through college and early married life ( my then girl friend, still wife actually helped me push start it once. That's partly how I knew she was the one!). Some of the details remembered... 1. That little gauge in the center bottom of the main cluster with the oil can logo is for the oil level, not the pressure. It activates with the ignition on, engine off. 2. Both turn signal indicators blink no matter what direction you are indicating. The bulb is just there to show you it's working. 3. The shifter knob was originally covered with thin leather that wore out about 5 minutes after it was installed. I replaced mine the second time with a plain wooden knob as I knew the pattern by then! 4. That stupid catalytic converter was located too close to the alternator and if the heat shield was missing then the alternators had a rather diminished life (5 alternators in 7 years). 5. The valve clearances need to be checked and adjusted periodically for happy running. 6. The French know how to make a small car ride like a dream! Great seats and coil springs all around along with regular 13 inch steel wheels with fairly tall sidewall tires let that little car float along almost as comfortably as my 64 Cadillac. 7. As I recall mine had a 15(!) gallon gas tank that meant I only had to fill up about once a month as it averaged 21 mpg around town! (saw 36 or so on the highway when I was brave enough to go out of town!) 8. I could still get parts from Don Dawson AMC/Eagle in Pensacola but they were never very happy to see me! They'd have to look up parts on a microfiche and then cross reference the numbers with a different parts book, then order the part usually. I also later had access to a parts car and stripped anything I thought would be useful for later repairs so that helped. 9. I never drove on a long trip without bringing a toolbox and some spare parts. 10. Those spark plugs have an extension stem that screws onto the top of the plug to make the connection to the spark plug leads. Much joy for tune ups. 11. I had a squeak from the rear of the car when loaded for 6 of the 7 years I owned it that turned out to be the rear brake proportioning valve connection rod rubbing on a guide. 12. The center pad on the steering wheel isn't the horn. That's activated by pushing in on the turn signal stalk which is also rotated to turn on the exterior lights and clicked toward the steering wheel to control the high/low beams. It was a rather expensive switch to replace as a result! 13. The great fun it was to watch someone unfamiliar with the car walk up to the passenger side and then stare at the door panel to try and locate the door handle! As I said so many (repressed?) memories. Well, as Click and Clack used to say, "Nobody copies the French and the French don't copy anybody!" Looking forward to this repair with great interest. Thank you.
Click and Clack was the best. It was the only show worth listening (except for Prairie Home Companion).
Yep, the French do it their way!
@@MrSparklespring The NPR car guys once said every car maker copies all the other car makers, but the French don't copy anyone and no one copies the French. They recommeded getting a mechanic named Pierre.
I had one. I never did find the horn. I did finally find the battery in the trunk. I couldn't keep it running. Man that car was weird!
At velcro spot on the dash probably held a radar detector because they were very popular back then
My thoughts exactly.
Whistler Spectrum for me back then.
For the Fuego it's probably wishful thinking.
It was probably wishful thinking regarding it even leaving the driveway.
Concur on the radar detector for Velcro
Exactly
A friend's dad had one back in the day in Ireland. It looked pretty futuristic when it was new compared to the rubbish, boxy stuff that everyone was driving in Europe at the time.
I grew up in Dublin as a teenager in the 80s. Two neighbours in my estate worked in sales for Renault main dealers. They both picked a different car every week for personal use so I got to see the whole range of exotic Renault including this Feugo, but also the turbo editions of the R11, R18, R25…all really cool cars for their time.
It has a DeLorean vibe with this colour. It was definitely a sporty car for young drivers in the 80s, you could see many of them with a huge CB antenna to communicate with drivers in the area and know where the police is.
Around the point where car lights were designed by the stylist rather than coming out of a light manufacturers catalogue and being bolted on. The European Feugos had streamlined headlights matching the body shape.
All I heard from the wizard is that he absolutely wants to work on your full restoration project.
Unless it has those horrible u joints he fears!
I take it you are being ironic. He couldn't make it any plainer, that he doesn't do resto.s
@@thevauxhallman7157yeah. I was just mess’n
Especially if you tried working on it and gave up. Just send along the parts in a box.
Especially the 'ran when parked' projects; definitely his favorites.
Fun fact: In October 1982, the turbocharged diesel Fuego became the fastest diesel car in the world, with a top speed of 180 km/h (110 mph).
I remember I had a Renault Alliancemade in Wisconsin
I can't stand commenter's mostly boomers who go to wiki to read and post fun facts on videos...
@@w.e.s.hey dude you sound like the worst kind of person. Like you hate that people post fun facts relating to the content they're commenting under? I hate people that think they are the coolest person they know. Like there is so much shit in this world that actually sucks but you pick on this freaking dude?
@@w.e.s.Lol 😆
@@w.e.s. LMAO this reply wins
I remember seeing these at the local AMC /JEEP dealership along with the Le Car.
Renault 5, Le Car, the best days of Renault in the US !
@@lucasrem My Cajun Queen has people in France & her cousins have some killer Renault`s over there that planted me in the seat... they were telling me to sneak some thru Canada with some beefed up American windows/bumpers to pass the inspections... that`s the issue
One of my coworkers at the time bought a new LeCar, which kinda turned out to be LeCrapCan for him. Not the finest ever owner experience.
Working electronic on a lat 70, early 80’s Renault …😮
Miracles do exist 🙌🙌🙌
@@garysimonson9593 who buys a LeCar for the drivers' experience...it`s a poor man`s special.
Not sure why people don't like Mrs wizards interior reviews...she is very thorough and and knows colors names I have forgotten about..never a skip for me
I think it's the "and as we move to".
I saw the original Facebook Marketplace listing for this car and ended up messaging a ton of RUclips channels about it because I had watched it sit for weeks - I couldn't take on the project myself, but I wanted to get it in one of their hands; AMAZING TO SEE IT MADE IT!
Chubby didn`t look like he took much effort so what`s your issue
The Renault Fuego is a legend in Argentina, there were specific models and even Diego Maradonna had a Fuego.
Edit : It's crazy to see a US model with a 85 mph max speedometer. The European version was able to go 120+ mph. Like other Renault Turbo cars of the era (5, 9, 11, 18, 25) the gear knob was covered in leather, so the orange plastic was the original color but it didn't matter since it was covered.
He drove a Left Hand of God drive
@@leehauxwell1149 He also often carry over the median white line of the road... snif!
Oh man when i was a kid my neighbour had a red renault fuego and i was absolutely in love with it...
Too bad the red turned to chalk after a few years. My sister had one. Otherwise a beautiful car considering the domestic crp on the market.
I've seen a red Renault Fuego in the UK, within the past year or so. I did a double-take as I drove past as they're practically extinct here, and it seemed so random, parked outside a house in the middle of nowhere. I've always really liked the look of them.
I had a 'W' reg red Renault Fuego 1.6TS when I was aged 19/20. Lovely car and was referred to as a poor man's porsche by some at the time. Great times.
I love that Crow, I hope he, or she, will get involved with more videos
😂
You're probably going to have to get the fuel pump, filter, sending unit, etc. from Argentina. I bought a non running Renault Fuego as a project car for $500 back in 2002. I simply couldn't find parts for it in the U.S.
All Argentinian made Fuegos were equipped with 2.0L motor at first then 2.2L both carburetted, no injection here unfortunately, as for the US turbo it is equpped with 1.6 which is completely different,
I still have nightmares about that sunroof. I did my apprenticeship at a Renault dealer in the early 80's. The gear mechanism is half plastic and half metal and very fragile and prone to breaking due to the design. Getting a broken roof open without destroying it was not easy. Thieves used to break in through the sunroof in order to steal the factory Blaupunkt stereo, so unfortunately I had lot's of practice .. and just pray you never have to deal with the half dozen relays used to control the heater/AC fans.. Renault makes Lucus look like they knew what they were doing when it comes to wiring :)
The issue with the HVAC is that they wanted to be fancy for the US market. The Euro models had regular sliders with cables and no buttons.
😂
@@peteoutwest6839 The North American models had the A/C as a stand alone evaporator in the center console with its own blower motor. It used the same fan switch as the heater and had a pile of relays to switch back and forth between the 2 motors. Nothing was labelled and the relays were mounted randomly in a group up under the dash...
@@timmccabe8555 so just as I said, wanted to be fancy because in Europe you didn't even get AC IIRC so they, in good old French tradition tinkered with electronics that they don't understand. Even the Germans had regular sliders and one button for AC.
I took mine on the PA Turnpike at over 100mph and no rattles and no shakes. That was my first car that I financed. Total price, $8,888.00 That was in '85.... Man, you put Genesis in the tape deck and you pull that sunroof back, you were saying something.
Those sunroofs are very common in Europe and the most common brand, is Webasto. These could be bought and retro-fitted in many cars. The older ones were all manually operated, as far as I’ve seen in the past, so it’s cool to see this one being electric, as far back as 82!
The Fuego is a very cool and very rare car! I’m actually surprised you got these in the US!!
Every day is a school day 😁
Yup the memories! :) Renault had a good presence here in the 1980's and you'd have seen a lot of them here especially the "Le Car" (the US name for the Renault 5) and my memory's fuzzy on this but the US Postal Service bought the Renault Alliance, in right hand drive I would think, for testing for US mail delivery! Back when I was looking for my first car the Fuego was on my short list along with other cars of the time e.g. Isuzu Impulse and ultimately I bought an '86 Toyota Corolla SR5 which I later traded in for just $500--geez if I'd had only known how popular those last of the RWD Corollas would later become! Seems like most the Fuegos I saw were the same silver color as the one in this video, doing a quick search on youtube I found this old commercial for the '82 (sold here by AMC dealerships another thing I'd forgotten), enjoy! :) ruclips.net/video/LoR_PQ9MCoM/видео.html
Yeah, Americans and the Canadians got it, but they totally ruined the styling with the really stupid "impact absorbing" bumpers which were required by law, and by the totally silly US spec headlamps which were really no better than two tiny little candles.
The Cibie lamps, on the other hand were fabulous and would light up the night sky like the Sun.
Renault owned AMC at the time, which is why they had a decent presence. There’s actually a Renault Fuego shot in a Wonder Woman episode from the original series, where Diana Prince (played by Lynda Carter) is driving it.
@ ah very cool! I didn’t know about the AMC link, so that makes sense! It shows that even after almost 45 years of studying cars, there’s always more to learn!
I've never seen an electrically operated sunroof like that, though I'm well acquainted with the manual Webasto version. They're actually very weatherproof and surprisingly robust if properly maintained. Some were vinyl and others double-duck, but they're not horribly expensive to get retrimmed if necessary.
I'm impressed your angry guy called to apologize, these days not many people have that level of integrity. Of course better if he's just said he wanted to get a second opinion, and not get angry in the first place.
I'm wondering if the conversation included "could you still do it for the price you quoted; pretty please".
My first car was an 84 Fuego. Drove it around from 2000 to 2005. Had the 2.0 litre carby engine but I did a top end swap with a Renault 21 that had the same engine but with EFI. Definitely ran a bit smoother after that. Loved that car, miss that car.
"Had the 2.0 litre carby engine" - Nice, but carburetors REALLY can get messed up with Bad-Old fuel.
BTW: Sta-Bil doesn't work even for fuel just sitting for 6 months - The RUclips channel 'Project Farm' tested the 'stuff' - Non-Ethanol fuel came out on top BY ALOT !
@y2ktube Never had any real trouble with the carb fortunately. The EFI was just a fun project.
There's a reason why the folks from Roadkill, Junkyard Digs, or Vice Grip Garage frequently have to rig up a fuel system or sw.ap carburetors to get their ancient heaps running. Restoring these ancient fuel-injection setups is another nightmare entirely. One could likely hack up an aftermarket EFI setup on these, but now it's no longer original.
Hats off to Euroasian Bob for trying to keep this Fuego stock and original instead of doing a LS or K-series swap.
Finally...the Fuego!!! Thank you Car Wizzard! Mine was externally the same. It was a non-turbo 1.6 litre hemi with the spark plugs at the center of the combustion chamber. This one has a 1.5 and it's mounted with metric Michelin TRX which are really expensive, hard to find and outdated. Only good memories.
The first new car I bought was a red 1982 Fuego. It had the fabric top, but it wasn’t the turbo. It had a very, smooth ride, but was very slow. The 5 speed was a bit rubbery. I had the fabric roof, but the French design was not so great. If you didn’t release the power top button at the exact second that it was fully closed the mechanism exploded. The poor Jeep/AMC mechanics didn’t have a clue how to repair it. When I started dating my wife, shortly a getting the car, I warned her that her apartment was in a bit of a sketchy neighborhood. Sure enough thieves slashed the roof to get the radio. It went back to those poor mechanics who had to replace the whole thing. Overall I really liked the design and the ride. I liked the car, but didn’t love it. So, when we first got married I had the Fuego and she had a Rabbit, which was a fun car to drive but super unreliable and very spartan. We sold the Rabbit and bought a 1966 Porsche 912, that was in pretty rough shape. I sold the Fuego and bought a 1977 BMW 320i, which was the first year model of the iconic 3 series. It was more fun to drive, but even less reliable and needed sandbags in the trunk and Vredestein winter tires to survive winter. Then we had kids and the fun old cars went bye bye. My Fuego didn’t have the upgraded leather interior like this one, but my interior was a velour fabric with the same seats.
6:33 Are you sure it is a horn button? Old Renaults have the horn at the left rod for blinker, you push it in to honk.
My 83 Peugeot did too.
Correct, it is just a pad, French standard is pushing in the left stalk.
correct
I had a 1985 Fuego back in the 90's, a 2 litre n/a carburetored 5 speed manual. It's was a really good car and handled very well considering the engine sitting out past the front axle. Funny you should mention hail storms because that's how mine got written off, I was caught in the 1999 Sydney hailstorm, which was the costliest natural disaster in Australian insurance history. An estimated 500,000 tonnes of hailstones fell as the storm made its way along the east coast. Every upward facing panel had hail damage, windscreen was smashed and the tailgate glass was shattered. Took it to the smash repairers the next morning and they just took one look and said write-off. Thankfully it had a regular steel roof and not the fabric slide back one this has. Never seen that on a Fuego before, only Citroen 2CVs.
Mrs Wizard does a great job with her interior reviews. Very thorough and intetesting
NO WAY her voice is SO abrasive , very HIGH and squeeky ! ( Unless your into that sort of thing ) ☹
A special note on the tire and wheel combination of this car. They came with a special Michelin tire and wheel. The wheel is about a 15.5 diameter but in metric and it had a special bevel for the bead seat. You can not find this Michelin tire any more. They were known as a TRX. I was a tire dealer back in the 80s and Michelin basically gav e us free wheels to try to get them to sell. Plan on buying wheels and tires for this to get it road worthy.
As I remember now they came in a 365 MM or a 390 MM wheel.
Didn’t the Ford Mustang also have TRX wheels and tires at one point as well?
I learned this in the car and driver article with the Renault fuego turbo as a winter derby car in May 2003.
You can get them where I am in the UK from Michelin Classic but they are eye wateringly expensive as they do small production runs and are normally about £500 each!
I noticed the "TRX" mark on the tyre...
I had a 1961 VW bug that had a manual version of that retractable style sunroof. When opened, almost the entire roof was open. It was a vinyl impregnated fabric over a metal frame but had real headliner material as the material you saw from the cabin.
It never leaked, even in some pretty hard downpours, something that was not true of the hard top sunroof in a later Type 3 Squareback I had.
I hope whoever buys the Fuego fully restores it.
I had a 1984 bought brand new. There were 5 levels. Mine was level 3. 1,6 liter with Turbo, hard top and cloth seats. Replacing tires (Michelin TRX) was very expensive. I remember purchasing a set of 4 around 1988 for 110$ each + taxes + installation... On each side, a huge decal with the word TURBO stretched on the lower side of the door from wheel to wheel. When Mrs. Wizard showed the missing radio, shivers went down my spine. Fuegos had a huge thing going against them. It came from the factory with a Blaupunkt radio with cassette player. Thieves would spot these cars from afar, break the window and steal the radio. It happened to me only once. I had to get a drawer thingy and would leave with the whole unit under the arm whenever I parked it for any length of time. Not the most pleasant thing. It wasn't very fast. But, at low speed, It did have very good acceleration when the turbo kicked in.
With fat tires, it really looked and drove different.
Back in the days when "Turbo" was the latest and greatest thing. In the U.K. you could even get sunstrips saying OBRUT so people you were following knew what was behind them.
TRX tyres had a specially shaped bead which would only fit on rims especially made for the tyre. I'm not sure what Michelins thinking behind the TRX tyre was. To ensure that they weren't put onto a regular rim the rims and the bead diameter of the tyre were in millimetres not inches. Given that only the French manufacturers got on board with this that made the tyres more expensive. My Fuego had them and my parents had a Peugeot 505 GTi which also used them. The TRXs aren't made anymore so at some point I'd have had to swap over all 4 wheels to enable fitting normal tyres but my Fuego got written off before I got to that point.
The irony about the French made Michelin TRX tyres on a French Renault was that the Renaults sold in France used regular wheel sizes not TRX. I own now a UK spec Fuego Turbo with factory 185/65HR14 tyres!
@@DPG-Guitar Hi. I'm sure you are mostly right, but there was a least one american manufacturer who used TRXs for a time and in special cases. Way back when, a friend at work had a Mercury Capri Black Magic Edition (1981 or 1982 i'm not sure). It was a very special edition with a 5 liter V8. It came for the factory with 190/65 R 390 TRXs. I assume they did not sold many as it was quite expensive for what it was. I believe there also was a Ford Mustang of that era that had TRXs. It was probably a very select edition.
@10:52 "I listen with my ears" Very profound Weeezard, very profound!
most of the Fuego parts are from the Renault 18 and they are widely available in Africa and latin America
in my country they were used to carry twice their weight in counterband products across the borders they are so reliable
Ahead.ights and tail lights come from Rena 14. The model it replaced here in UK.
I had a turbo Fuego in 1985. you could get a non turbo Fuego but the silver ones are the turbo equipped ones. Mine had the gray interior with no retractable roof. I still think they are beautiful. I regent having to sell it. I love seeing that car! Takes me back to a good time.
I started out as a tech at an AMC,JEEP, RENAULT dealership we had one towed in. Customer states car wont start after changing the tire. He knocked the coil wire off when he put the flat tire back under the hood.
Funny
Wow, I was just saying to my son today how I haven’t seen a Fuego for a long time. I had two of them in the 80’s - both turbocharged but unfortunately met an untimely end - but I loved my Fuegos. Thanks for sharing. The reason that the cat is behind the turbo is because it was added for the North American market, and that was the only place to put it. My second one had a plugged cat which caused it to not produce any turbo boost. Was a simple fix to remove the innards of the cat with a steel rod, and it ran so much better.
Shhh the wiz is far too knowledgeable to listen to us old geezers as passed over the Michelin engineered wheels that our 81 Saab turbo also rocked which was well ahead of the American cars at the time. Now if the wify would only simmer down when she rolled up on a vette or one of those yuppie beemer peeps I wouldn`t have been doing those front calipers every 6,000 damn it.... Wiz didn`t even slide behind the wheel or maybe he couldn`t fit shhhhh
I had a R17 Gordini convertible. It was red with a bolt on top on top of the fabric sliding roof.
The last time I saw a Fuego, I had long black hair. Fast forward to the present day and I have a bald head, gray chest hair and haven't seen a Fuego in at least 30 years. What a fine specimen!
lol
Same here. I think the last time I saw one I had long dark hair too, lol. 😂
😂😂
Me exactly
You or the car ….
A rare car these days. I had a base model TL (I think) in England in the early 90's and loved it. Now there are just 20 taxed on the road in the UK😢
Thanks for checking. In contrast there are 36 Jaguar E types for sale on Autotrader U.K. Everyone seems to pick the same cars as "Classics" and forget about ones like this which were actually affordable back in the day.
Greatings from France ! Wait a second these bumpers and headlights are so strange 😮
US safety standards at the time required them and emission controls. All things European models were free from.
@@johngaither9263including an AC… 🥵
It's a US spec, in France the Turbos were carbureted
very cool cars. Haven't seen one here in UK for at least 35 years . love the styling.
According to 'How many left' there are 20 Fuegos left registered in the UK, so unlikely to bump into one in the wild.
I had one for 7 years - the 1985 2.0 GTX. Took me through college, never broke down, never required any oil top up. That thing was a tank with a tight engine
Drove one for awhile in the day. Loved it, along with a merkur and a Renault 21(nee eagle medallion) and a Peugeot 504 wagon and various Saabs and Volvos. Love the funk!! Velcro May be a mount for an 80’s radar detector. Always loved the designs of these off beat cars, the running not so much! Thanks for the videos really enjoy them!
@11.10...it's scatman!! You should front a Jazz Band!!!
Clarification, the "gearbox" is actually behind, ie rearwards of where those CV drive axles come out of the transmission housing. Many Renaults, for many years, have used a similar system where the drive comes out the back of the engine, flywheel, clutch, then sneaks past beyond where those half axles come out. Then goes through the gearbox, then the drive is transmitted forward again, up to internal differential and the half axles. It's an ingenious design. I had this car's 5 door big brother, Renault 25 hatchback) with the 2.2 litre naturally aspirated engine and talking dashboard, yes in 1980's a clearly talking dashboard. "Front door, NOT shut" etc.
Talking dashboards were the latest thing back then. The top of the range Austin Maestro had one. "Not the Nine of Clock News" did a comedy sketch about them "mind the gatepost". Nowadays, we are expected to talk to the cars.
The vinyl of that roof is probably quite hard from aging and sun. The headlights are NA specific, the Euro headlights are flush with the body contour. What is surprising is the absence of rust. The ones I knew all converted quite quickly to iron oxide and extra air conditioning lightweight construction.
Careful with the tires. They seem to be Michelin with the TRX system (IIRC). Tires and wheels are not compatible with normal ones (different sizes, different layout...). They were an advancement at the time, but did not prevail.
OMG Great Video, love the comment about the whole fuel system being shot....what price experience....alot!
Austin TX 😢1982 - I wanted the Fuego but bought an Alliance becsuse my wife liked it better. When the salesman put his boots up on his desk and proceeded to tell her that the transmission worked like the runners on her kitchen drawers (little lady), I thought she was going to leap over that desk and rip him a new one, boy howdy.
😂😂😂😂
That looks exactly like the one I bought new. They were a pretty roomy small car. I had the 1.6 liter turbo. It would deliver 39 mpg on the hiway all day and 32 mpg in the city. My dad eventually bought it from me because he liked it so much.
That top is screaming out for some serious lubrication!
From the sound generated, it's probably 5 open-close operations away from a complete failure.
The velcro strip on the dash is most likely a mount for a radar detector, a common practice back in the day. It's also in about the spot most people would mount one.😅
agreed
One of the coolest cars in its time. Thanks.
Indeed
Good luck getting metric TRX tyres for that Fuego. Be a shame to lose those wheels, they are very unique to the Fuego in the US. Cheers wizard, Steve, Sydney, Australia.
The 390mm TRX tires have been reproed (for stupid $) but the other sizes (365mm) haven’t.
This was in that funny era where AMC had teamed up with Renault. You could buy Jeeps at Renault dealerships in France and Renaults at AMC dealerships in USA. This unlikely union produced ONE beautiful child, the Jeep Cherokee XJ.
A timely video for me as I am restoring a 1972 Renault 17 which is the predecessor of the Fuego. It has the same engine, Bosch fuel injection and has been laid up since 1985. I have restored the bodywork and completely rebuilt the brakes. Now I know it will stop, I need to get it to go. Next job is the fuel system and you have given me an excellent tutorial, thank you.
I used to have a full option one in europe.
Mine was 1984. No fuel injection over here.
But if you want funky, just google on 1984 fuego turbo with radio renault. Way different and much 'funkier' 😊
Had a lot of fun with it, actually had 2!
One of my first jobs was at an AMC Jeep dealership in 1983. We didn't sell many of these back then. The Renault Appliance, I mean Alliance sold fairly well
I'm french, I've seen a lot of fuegos over the years, but that interior is pretty wild. Never seen those seats, in particular.
The shape of the seat is genuine, but I agree this upholstery on those
They were USDM only but they are 100% original
The shape is the same as the Euro ones, also used in the R11 turbo and the R5 Alpine, but the leather is US market only. Europeans would have never bought that style.
I had the pleasure of driving one of these back in the day. Super comfortable, and surprisingly quick for an 80's 1.6L. Good luck with the Michelin TRX tires. It will need a wheel and tire swap.
Webasto roof ? were very common in the uk in the 1980's never seen a powered one though.
You have a good ear and rhythm. You must be a musician as well. And the staccato term too.
Those seats look like they belong in a vehicle four times the purchase price of that one, they are epic
Renault have always had a thing about very cool looking seats - Renault 5 turbo. Original Renault 16 could be turned into hammocks.
@ awesome!!
Renault 25 seats look like they belong in a Rolls Royce.
I highly doubt that the leather is original, I think they have been reupholstered at some point
@@jordanrudler2120 Yeah they are original on the USDM ones
I have a roof exactly like that on my 2021 Land Rover Defender, I love it. The Fuego was known as 'the poor mans Porsche' back in the day, there were a lot on UK roads.
The velcro was used for a 1980's Cobra Radar Dectector!
Wow thats a time travel moment. Never thought I would see a Fuego again. I had a 2.0 GTX in Metallic blue in 1988. Loved it to bits except the sunroof would not stop leaking.
I want car companies to build cars EXACTLY like this TODAY! I'd buy one RIGHT NOW!
I am old, so trust me on this one: getting a weird old car is a piece of cake! Easy!!
Oh, you wanted a car that worked?
Sorry.....not possible......
Would make for interesting decor out behind the barn, ass deep in weeds, surrounded by other assorted scrapmetal...
@@hughbarton5743 I mean I have a 90s Mondeo and even though it jerks a bit sometimes and the AC doesn't work it still runs like a clock and takes me to work every day with over 330.000km on the clock, so....
There’s a reason these things barely sold when they were new. Several reasons, actually.
@@seed_drill7135 But they did sell though?
Well, if I look at channels like Autio Auction Rebuilds, Samcrac and others, modern cars are even less reliable with all the elecronic gimmicks. Or as my mom's mexhanic once said when I was a kid: "What's not there (i.e. installed) can't break." The man was absolutely right.
Useful info on the fuel system. I always had a soft spot for these cars, I liked the ones with the Turbo livery like the one in the A View to a Kill James Bond movie.
fuego 1.6 turbo same engine as the renault 18 turbo should have 110bhp an a big garret t3 turbo a bit of lag when the boost comes in the fun would start!! it deserves to be restored and used .
My brother still drives his Citroen DS from 1970. In the eighties, he had a 1983 Turbo Fuego. That car caught fire and burned to the ground about 35 years ago!
Mr and Mrs Wizard...love ya'lls channels. Respect.
i have not seen a fuego since the early 90's the roof is awesome. really love it. a company called webasto in the uk made them for british cars. renault had other models with this type of webasto sunroof including the 4 and 2CV and many others. fiat used to as well. i love them bc they open so large it almost makes the car a convertible.
good luck finding TRX metric tyres!
79 to 81 mustangs had trx tires
TRX tyres continue to be made by Michelin so are available - however they are uber expensive when compared to non metric tyres.
Had one of these. Spend most of my time on public transit because it never made it to destination. Last French car I ever owned.
Luv'ed my non Turbo 1983 red fuego.
Back in the 1980s, when I was 19, I almost bought one of these. Instead, I ended up getting a crashed 944 and repairing it myself, but I still remember this car with a lot of fondness. Watching this video brings back great memories-I really enjoy hearing about your experiences. That kind of insight and personal connection is something money can’t buy! Keep up the good work.
Great video!
Hi from Toulouse, France. I really enjoy your videos.
Love those Fuegos.
Good luck with finding millimetric TRX tyres. Back in the day i used to have some on my VW golf GTI.
Even in the eighties they were awfully expensive, but the best on the road ! Thumbs up for all your great work !
Many years ago AMC / Renault had a joint venture. One of the areas I was responsible for - to provide manpower (technicians) for the executive garage. The execs could either lease or get a company car as a part of their benefits. The Techs in the Exec garage complained that the Fuego and Medallian took longer to fix and diagnose than our AMC cars. Renault had multiple voltages under the hood running various systems…12,14,8, 10 volts if I recall. They were really “problem children”. Sorting things out soured both the execs and the techs. The good point about Renaults was they ran very smoothly over the roughest roads. So… verify voltages and understand how much voltage is used where. Nice cars - Bur!
That's always been the French car philosophy, many have hight ride height and long travel suspension
I had an 82 Turbo once, no start same issue. Check the fuel pump circuit relay under the passenger front seat area, that’s where my fuel pump problem was. The relay was in a box and had a burned circuit board.
Those had a value of about $200 in the late 80’s Midwest
Cool story
Over valued!
One in good shape is probably worth a little more than that now.
Oh, you can get a square back hatch lid as well as the sloped back hatch lid. Its easy to to change over. Some people got both when they bought new.
When I was growing up, my neighbor had a Renault Dauphine.....what a dog....
Belle dauphine
Brings back memories, my 1982 GTX Fuego looked great, performed not so and quietly rusted away in under 5 years. Car Wizard, always loved the videos. 🤠
I worked at a Renault dealership back in the 70s. Man, they were pieces of shit back then. Even the Gordini was awful. I remember the shocks were $150 back then! The shocks were made in the USA by Monroe, shipped to France where they were repackaged then shipped to dealers! Crazy.
That's for other brands too. Buy Volvo-branded electric adjustable shocks and pay a lot more than if you buy the Monroe ones. The only difference is the Volvo sticker on them, as they are also made by Monroe.
I still remember the LeCar my parents had in the 80s. Fortunately it died before I got my license in 85.
Really clean Fuego and should be a cool vintage ride when done.
I can't believe you have one of this in your shop 😃 This car is a mythe in France ! Keep going, I'll love you more
19:56 I thought my neighborhood crows were up late! Nice to see they a noisy everywhere I am. Thank you Wizard and Mrs Wizard for this trip back in time.
Wizard: I don't work on old cars.
Also Wizard: Except this one ... and this one ... and ...
No kidding. I thought he quit working on customer's project cars.
I had the same year Renault 18i, basically the same car but the sedan version. Drove that car all over the country, was actually a very comfortable car. Same orangey colored interior but the seats were just the one color orangey leather.
😮
For what?
I agree with the wizard on stabilizers. I've used them for winter storage of lawn mowers, weed walkers and the sort but then again that's 6 months vs 30 years. Keep showing me those cool cars from when I was in high school in the mid 80's.
I used to walk past one of this every day on way to school in the early 90’s, beautiful thing
My dad worked for AMC back in the day (owned by Renault at the time) and we were able to lease cars for a year at a time. We had had a Fuego Turbo one year (1982) and my brother and I took it on Spring Break to South Padre Island. The car started to overheat around Brownsville so we stopped at a local repair shop. The mechanics literally thought we were time travelers. They had never seen anything like it!
Great video Wizard! Thanks for saving the Fuego!
Those wheels are awesome!
Did anyone else cross their fingers and grit their teeth when the Wizard opened and closed that roof? I had a LeCar (Leaker as we called it) with the similar roof and three studded wheels.
I worked at a very large used car lot in the mid 80's-mid 90's. I have seen a few of them back in the day along with VW Scirocco's and Renault Alliance and Encore's that I made a lot of money taking the dash out and replacing the heater core's!
You've brought back memories here. I had bought a '84 Fuego Turbo as a $350 project car. I'd road tested one before that, and based on that, very much wanted one. The car I bought lacked the sunroof, power accessories and the leather, but was colored much the same. I wasn't a good enough mechanic to fix all of its problems. I replaced the head gasket, but that was followed by a problem with the engine not developing nearly enough power. I tore through that fuel injection system and could never fix the problem. Most likely I made the problem when I replaced the head gasket, but I didn't have the time to solve it properly. Worse, someone cut the diagnostic plug (it's on the firewall, a small black square).
Modding one of these would have been unlikely, to be gentle about it. You weren't going to flip open a Neuspeed or a NOPI catalog and find stuff for this car, as I recall. On the other hand, I had information on buying Renault Sport parts that would have lowered the suspension, perhaps included anti-sway bars, and non TRX wheels were available at the time. Renault actually supported its cars in competition here, there were even series races for them. There was a Le Car Cup and an Alliance Cup at one time, I think. Could they have been looking for their next F1 drivers here?
I was a member of a Renault Owner's Club, and someone was selling dealer keychains. So the one I had said Les Automobiles Deauvillaises, Rue De Paris 14800 DEAUVILLE 31.88.21.34.
Like I said, memories. Also, the regret that I could not have done more with my Fuego.
Thanks guys to click on "translate" to find out the funky eputation of the Fuego in France 😂 Je suis étonné et heureux de constater que le Wizard a dans son atelier la voiture la plus moquée de France. Combien de films comiques Français ont ridiculisé les possesseurs de Fuego? Et cette réputation de Porsche du pauvre, de coupé pseudo sportif sur base de familiale populaire, n'a pas traversé l'atlantique. J'ai hâte de voir ce superbe exemplaire (sièges pétales cuir) et peinture impeccable reprendre la route. Bravo Wizzard.
A competitor to the old Ford Capri. Another car that is both mocked or admired but never both. The new one will be forgotten in twenty year time.
p.s. Now that the new Renault 5 is complete they should start designing a Fuego EV.
I remember these when I was in my early 20's. I always liked them. Wizard is amazing as he teaches as well as repairs!
Great video . My dad Only had Renaults when we were kids ( UK ) 16's / 18's and then of course the big 25 V6 .I remember begging him to get a 'Fuego" 🤣🤣🤣 this brought back some vey happy memories !!